The WITH Foundation is proud to share this month’s Grantee Spotlight, The Arc of Massachusetts. They were awarded grant funding as a result of our 2020 RFP on Addressing the Challenges Primary Care Providers experience in serving Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities during Pandemic and/or Emergency Situations.

The WITH Foundation has three grant cycles per year, two open grant cycles when any organization that meet our grant guidelines may apply,  and one Request For Proposals (RFP) cycle when WITH provides additional guidance regarding the projects and programs we seek to support through that cycle.

The Project: Healthcare Training to Enhance Care for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

The Arc of Massachusetts partnered with The Arc of the United States and The Arc of Oregon to develop a web-based, culturally competent training and toolkit for emergency medical personnel. The goal of the project was to support equal access to emergency healthcare for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), especially those with other marginalized identities, by educating healthcare providers working in hospital emergency departments.

What was accomplished in connection with this project?

  •  Established a website with training materials including a one-hour webinar, a video library including 9 videos, and a rich tool kit of resources.
  • Engaged in active outreach in at least two states that focused on delivery of live, virtual trainings of emergency department clinicians.
  • Disseminated information about the project to the national chapters of The Arc.
  • Held live virtual training for 9 hospitals throughout the Steward Hospital System, reaching 90 clinicians all of whom work in the Emergency Department (ED).
  • Held a virtual live training for 5 other hospitals through the St. Joseph’s Hospital System. 
Website image

Image Description: Screenshot of website with 4 training videos. Overlaid text reads “Training for Culturally Competent Care of Hospital Providers”.

Success Stories

After struggling with patients with autism and trying to manage complaints against ED staff, Steward System’s ADA Director, Carla Fogaren responded to the project’s outreach. After the training, she received lots of positive feedback and kept the recording on her system’s training website and became more involved with The Arc, even testifying at a hearing for a bill that The Arc wrote to establish standards of care and continuing education credits to enhance care for people with autism and IDD.

Another success story is of a family with two autistic sons were frequent visitors to the ED, but staff did not know how to care for them. Often security guards were called, causing further trauma. The boy’s mother, Jennifer, became involved in the project and is now an instructor for The Arc’s Operation House.  She is also teaching medical students at Tufts Medical School.

We are grateful for The Arc of Massachusetts, The Arc of the United States,  and The Arc of Oregon for their collaborative work to enhance training and curricula that improves the capacity of the healthcare community to address the needs of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Thank you!

Learn about our grant process by visiting https://withfoundation.org/grant-guidelines/